Given that Campanella only hit 242 National League home runs and the rest is mere guesswork about the Negro Leagues, I'm not going to let it trouble me overmuch.
(My faith Negro League statistics was severely shaken when I discovered that Josh Gibson's NEL stats had him only hitting 165 or so "official" blasts, which is almost
700 short of what's been claimed for him, and which, you'll recall, Whompin' Wilmer Flores has now passed.
Whompin' Wilmer hit #169 in a losing effort at Arizona last night, bringing him level with HoF Enos "Country" Slaughter and ex-Met Ty Wigginton, among others. )
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One hopes that Cedric Mullins's struggles at the plate may be ending, given his HR last night, but it's too soon to tell. Certainly Mendoza didn't do a great job of excuse-making, when Cedy was in that 0-fer last week. He was quoted by the NY Post thusly:
Quote:
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“I think missing fastballs. Late at times. Fouling them off. Not being able to square them up. Controls the strike zone, but I think he’s missing a lot of good pitches to hit.”
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Yeah, if you're getting around too late on the #1, well…I wouldn't buy a house, just saying.
Still, as disappointing as Mullins has been, let's at least note that he's an African-American, and I'd been decrying the absence of such on the Mets. (I welcome black Dominicans such as Marte and Mauricio and Brazoban and Gregory Soto, and black Venezuelans such as Our Acuna and Azocar, but I consider them outside the story of Jackie Robinson and how he changed both baseball and America.) So that's good.
Previously, I'd reported that Tyrone Taylor's father has Jamaican ancestry, but that appears to be an error. There is a Jamaican musician named "Tyrone Taylor" and one of those biographical sites conflated the two.
(Tyrone Taylor has
298 ABs this season. With the way he's hitting, I'm tempted to deport him…even if he is from Torrance CA)